Loveless is Zvyagintsev’s third Cannes Competition entry and his third partnership with producer Alexander Rodnyansky. It centers on Zhenya and Boris who are going through a vicious divorce marked by resentment, frustration and recriminations. Already embarking on new lives, each with a new partner, they are impatient to start again, to turn the page – even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. Until, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears.

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Says SPC, “There is no more timely film than Loveless. Andrey is one of the world’s finest directors in peak form here. It is just great to be in business again with him and Alexander following our success together with Leviathan a few years ago.”

Leviathan won best screenplay here in 2014 and later the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. SPC Co-President’s Michael Barker and Tom Bernard had a deal done within six hours of seeing that film in Cannes.

Loveless, which screens tomorrow, is co-written by Zvyagintsev and Oleg Negin. Producers are Non-Stop Production, Fetisoff Illusion, Why Not Production, Les Films du Fleuve and Senator Film Production with support from Eurimages, Arte, Canal+, WDR and Cine+. Wild Bunch is handling international sales.